About idverde Community Investment Fund

About idverde Community Investment Fund

We know there is no shortage of great ideas and enthusiasm for green space improvement projects in our communities, but a lack of cash can prevent great ideas from reaching their potential. That’s why idverde launched its Community Investment Fund, which grants up to £40,000 per year to support community-led projects in the areas where we work.
If your project will make an improvement to a public open space, then we can consider it. The open space could be a park, playing field, recreation ground, playground, nature reserve, wood or even a cemetery.
The space must be freely accessible to all members of the public, and the improvement could be better facilities (a new swing), or making it look more attractive (new plants and shrubs) or making it easier for everyone to enjoy (wheelchair access) or making it more of a home for wildlife (bug hotels).

A. It’s a pot of money (up to £40K every year) that our company, idverde UK, has set aside to help local community groups make improvements to their outdoor environment. We call this our Community Investment Fund, or iCIF for short.

We only offer this in areas where idverde already works for the Council or your local Housing Association, so if you see our vans driving around, you’re in luck! This is because we can support you with more than just money, we can also provide you with plants, tools, take your rubbish away, and so on. But we can only do this if we are close by.

We usually give grants of up to a maximum of £1000. This means we should be able to support at least 40 great projects every year. However, we will consider pledging more than this, especially if it allows you to ‘match-fund’ and get even more money from another funder.

Q. What kind of projects can apply to the idverde Community Investment Fund?

A. If your project will make an improvement to a public open space, then we can consider it. The open space could be a park, playing field, recreation ground, playground, nature reserve, wood or even a cemetery. The space must be freely accessible to all members of the public, so we can’t fund private schools, or allotments, or anything where access is restricted or you have to pay to get in. The improvement could be better facilities (a new swing), or making it look more attractive (new plants and shrubs) or making it easier for everyone to enjoy (wheelchair access) or making it more of a home for wildlife (bug hotels).

Q. What can we use the grant for?

A. You can use the grant to buy equipment, plants, materials, tools, and also to produce leaflets or set up a website, so long as it’s all about improving your local patch. You might want to hold an event to launch the project, that would also be an appropriate use of the grant. If your project provides some training or work experience for local people, then so much the better, because this might mean we can employ that person later on. So the funds can be used towards a training course on horticulture, landscaping, or conservation. Or you could use it for raising awareness of the importance of your local green space.

Q. Who can apply to the idverde Community Investment Fund?

A. We can’t fund individuals. You must be an organised group, with a formal constitution, and you must be not-for-profit. Examples of these would be charities, volunteer groups, ‘Friends of’ groups, community groups, wildlife groups, tenants associations, forums, sports teams, societies, and schools. Your team, group, or society must be based in a Borough where idverde currently holds a contract.

Q. How much can the idverde Community Investment Fund give towards our project, and when is it available?

A. Because we want to give our support to small, local groups at grass roots level, we have put an upper limit of £1,000 per project. As mentioned above, we might occasionally grant more than this, but you have a much better chance if you apply for no more than £1,000.

Q. Will my group be involved in publicity?

A. Yes, we want to promote all projects that our Fund has supported. This could be within the community (e.g. local newspaper, or community Facebook page) and also with our clients in the Council or Housing Association. So if your application to our Fund is successful, you’ll need to complete a publicity information form, which we will send to you, and make sure you take lots of photos of the amazing work you do!

The area surrounding Falconbrook Primary School is being regenerated to provide new living spaces and community facilities, however school falls just outside the boundaries of the planned regeneration. Our aim is to raise enough funds to renovate our outdoor areas, starting with our Early Years playground.

A Community Art meets Sport Project helping to promote the need for greater investment and engagement in grass roots basketball in the UK and specifically in the Essex region.
My aim is to re-imagine an unloved, under-used and poorly maintained outdoor public basketball court in Viaduct Road Park in Chelmsford, Essex by renovating it and installing an exciting and vibrant large-scale work of art on the court and hoop surfaces, in order to reengage the community, promote the sport of basketball whilst inspiring play, health and well-being and strengthen connections through the proven benefits of exercise and engagement with the arts, culture and creativity in a public space.

We at Kinetic Kontrol want to run a charity event centred on a brand new local exercise park. The charity we are working with is called One World One Heart. It is run by a young man that regularly uses the facilities at Waddon, and we find what he is doing inspiring because of many socio-economic factors. We are a forgotten demographic, and not expected to do much let alone make change because of what we look like or where we come from. We feel as though young people at risk in our community will take to our examples a lot more than any other means because we are more relate-able to their situation.
We want to involve as many people in the community and as many businesses in the community to build bridges and burn stereotypes.
We want to have exercise classes, fitness competitions, childrens games e.g bounce house, face painting, food and small stalls run by local businesses.

idverde UK

As the leading provider of green space services in the UK, idverde loves parks and green spaces, and provides services to local authorities, housing associations and more.

Our idverde Community Investment Fund aims to empower local communities to deliver projects that improve their local green space or the public realm, enhance the local environment, and boost the wellbeing of local people.